Fitness Model Reveals Intense Transformation After Anorexia Once Put Her at 57 Pounds

08/31/2017 03:55 pm EDT

When Hattie Boydle was 16 years old, she says she weighed a dangerous 26 kilograms (57 pounds). Anorexia nervosa had completely disintegrated her body, mindset and self-worth.

Today, the 28-year-old Australian fitness star and model weighs 56 kilos (123 pounds) and is speaking out about how her eating disorder changed her life.

While the current World Beauty and Fitness Champion says that today she's "very much free" of the condition that sent her to the hospital and almost claimed her life as a teen, Boydle says she remembers feeling guilty about food and restricting her diet more than 10 years ago when she fell prey to anorexia.

"It took me a long time to get here. I have no restriction on food. I don't feel guilty about food. I don't over exercise. I do not feel guilty about having a rest day. Mentally I just feel freedom," she told The Daily Telegraph.

"I don't think I would be the person I am today without that experience, it led me to fitness and helping other women."

Boydle, who will defend her title later this month, told Daily Mail Australia earlier this year that she tried "every diet under the sun" to get the figure that she thought would make her feel happy — but realized dieting was not the answer to a healthy lifestyle.

"While [the diet] worked when I was doing it, I found it was unsustainable," she said. "I'd go back to the place I had been before I started, being anxious about food and feeling restricted."

She went on to say that she realized there isn't one magical food or diet that can sustain a healthy lifestyle, instead mentioning that balance is key.

"I came to the realisation that there's no specific food that makes you slim or toned," she said. "That the key to anything is finding a balance of all foods."

Boydle says that learning to love herself was more important than any diet or exercise routine she's ever tried.

"I think once you work on your belief system and self-worth and validations, then everything else comes after," she said. "The body comes after that — you're doing something from a place of love rather than punishment."

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